Science and Postmortem Survival

Edward F. Kelly

Abstract

What we see currently emerging, in short, is a middle way between the warring fundamentalisms – religious and scientific – that have so polarized recent public discourse; specifically, an expanded science-based worldview that can accommodate empirical realities of paranormal and spiritual sorts, including postmortem survival, while also rejecting rationally untenable overbeliefs of the sorts targeted by critics of institutional religions. This emerging vision is both scientifically justifiable and spiritually satisfying, combining the best aspects of our scientific and religious heritage in an effort to reconcile these two greatest forces in human history. What is ultimately at stake here seems nothing less than recovery, in an intellectually responsible manner, of parts of our human heritage that were prematurely discarded with the meteoric rise of modern science starting four centuries ago. And what is especially significant at this critical juncture, and the fundamental new factor that may finally allow this recovery to succeed after numerous previous failures, is that it is now being energized by leading-edge developments in science itself. A potentially viable path to a better world seems to be opening up.